Combustion Specialist

Service Center Metals•Prince George, VA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Service Center Metals (SCM) is a state-of-the-art, 24/7 aluminum casting and extrusion facility near Richmond, Virginia. The Combustion Specialist installs, troubleshoots, maintains, optimizes, and commissions industrial combustion systems used in scrap melting, heat treatment, casting, and extrusion operations. The role supports burners, combustion controls, fuel and air systems, furnaces, ovens, and associated process-control equipment to ensure safe, reliable, efficient, and consistent operation. The specialist performs system startups and commissioning, diagnoses combustion and control issues, tunes systems, conducts combustion analysis, and supports maintenance, upgrades, rebuilds, and new installations. The role documents work and results, trains operators and maintenance staff, and collaborates with maintenance, engineering, production, environmental, and safety teams. Travel to customer or plant locations may be required and is less than 5% of the time. This is a fully on-site position in Prince George, Virginia.

Requirements

At least 5 years of industrial combustion experience.
Hands-on experience with industrial combustion equipment, burners, furnaces, ovens, or process-heating systems.
Knowledge of natural gas and fuel-gas systems, combustion principles, and industrial safety practices.
Ability to troubleshoot electrical, mechanical, pneumatic, instrumentation, and control-system issues.
Ability to read electrical schematics, P&IDs, wiring diagrams, and technical manuals.
Experience using combustion analyzers, multimeters, manometers, and other diagnostic tools.
Strong mechanical and electrical aptitude.
Ability to work safely around high temperatures, industrial gases, energized equipment, and heavy manufacturing equipment.
Willingness to work overtime, shutdowns, weekends, and emergency call-outs when necessary.
High school diploma or equivalent.
Ability to stand, walk, climb, bend, kneel, and work in confined or elevated areas.
Ability to lift and handle tools, components, and equipment weighing up to approximately 50 pounds.
Ability to wear required PPE, including respiratory, hearing, eye, face, heat-resistant, and fall-protection equipment.
Ability to work in hot, noisy, dusty, and industrial environments.

Nice To Haves

Technical school, apprenticeship, or associate degree.
Experience in aluminum, steel, foundry, casting, extrusion, or heat-treatment operations.
Experience with reverberatory, regenerative, rotary, crucible, walking-beam, or batch multi-chamber furnaces.
Experience with low-NOx, regenerative, recuperative, oxygen-fuel, or high-velocity burners.
Familiarity with Honeywell, Fireye, Siemens, Eclipse, Maxon, Hauck, Selas, Fives, or similar combustion equipment.
Experience with PLCs, HMIs, VFDs, temperature-control systems, and burner-management systems.
Knowledge of NFPA 86, NFPA 54, OSHA requirements, or applicable local fuel-gas codes.
Experience with combustion emissions testing and environmental compliance.
Gas-fitter, electrical, instrumentation, or other relevant certifications.

Responsibilities

Install, start up, commission, troubleshoot, and maintain industrial combustion systems.
Service and optimize burners for scrap-melting furnaces; reverberatory and holding furnaces; heat-treatment furnaces and ovens; preheating systems; billet and die-heating systems; and casting and extrusion equipment.
Diagnose and repair burner, ignition, flame-supervision, fuel-train, combustion-air, and exhaust-system problems.
Set up and tune air-to-fuel ratios to improve temperature uniformity, fuel efficiency, emissions, and product quality.
Troubleshoot combustion controls, including flame safeguards, programmable logic controllers, temperature controllers, actuators, valves, pressure switches, and instrumentation.
Perform combustion analysis using portable analyzers and other diagnostic equipment.
Verify operation of natural gas, propane, oxygen-enriched, and mixed-fuel systems, as applicable.
Inspect and maintain gas trains, regulators, filters, solenoid valves, safety shutoff valves, pressure switches, piping, and leak-detection systems.
Support furnace and oven temperature surveys, burner balancing, refractory-related troubleshooting, and process optimization.
Interpret electrical schematics, P&IDs, burner-management-system drawings, control logic, and equipment manuals.
Assist with furnace rebuilds, burner replacements, control upgrades, and new equipment installations.
Conduct preventive and predictive maintenance activities.
Document service work, test results, settings, repairs, and recommendations.
Train operators and maintenance personnel on proper equipment operation and basic troubleshooting.
Work with maintenance, engineering, production, environmental, and safety teams.
Follow applicable OSHA, NFPA, company, and site-specific safety requirements.
Participate in emergency response and equipment-recovery efforts when required.
Travel to customer or plant locations as needed; travel is less than 5% of the time.